I am spending the entire day in Central with an array of scheduled medical exams throughout the day. After meeting up with my doctor for an early one, I was allowed a quick breakfast before having another exam right before noon time. Now with another scheduled medical appointment in the afternoon, what should I do with a lunch break in between? Well, I already got it all figured out.
I rang up a few restaurants yesterday hoping for a last-minute cancellation and guess what, my plan worked out perfectly as they were able to squeeze me in at L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon at lunch this afternoon!
(My apologies for the less-than-stellar photos. I guess I was still under the influence of my medication.).
It was another busy afternoon for the team but Executive Chef Adriano Cattaneo was nowhere to be found.
Kicking things off as usual was a basket filled with their delicious homemade bread.
Next up was today's amuse bouche, potato and leek cream topped with olive oil, small carrot balls and crispy croutons. Underneath the feather light cream was a layer of king crab meat and vegetable jelly.
Maine lobster in turnip cannelloni with honey dressing and aromatic spices – What I usually do when I visit L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon is, I always get the same signature dishes. Pigeon stuffed with foie gras and a couple others. The most recent one which always came highly recommended by the staff here was the crispy poached egg with parmesan and Iberico ham. But I have a slightly different approach for today's lunch. I decided to break out of my comfort zone and check out a number of new dishes. Let's hope new is better than old.
The crunch felt almost like having a spring roll, which was supposed to be the design of the dish I presumed. I thought the Maine lobster had really nice bouncy texture but I wasn't sure if it was a good match with the honey mustard dressing and exotic spices. The small dabs of sauce in the middle (green – wasabi, orange – lobster coral, didn't get the yellow one) didn't really work as a dip as it was a bit dry. Not the best I've seen from the team here.
Roasted Iberico pork "pluma" with parmesan polenta and girolles mushrooms – I thought I've had this one before as it has been on the menu for a couple of years now but I couldn't find it in my record. This was reasonably good but I expected a little more.
That was of course accompanied by Robuchon's killer mash.
Poached French figs with almond blanc manger and refreshing ginger sorbet – It's near the tail end of fig season so one last chance for me to check out some French figs.
Again a relatively new dish (at least for me). I thought the poached figs were a little softer than I expected so its connection with the frozen almond blanc manger was a bit of a weak one. I was dealt with another blow when the ginger sorbet from the menu turned into a strawberry flavored one without mentioning from my server.
Petite fours were generally very good here and it was again the case today.
Cream puff, lemon tart and raspberry cheesecake (from right to left), and I got another cup of English Breakfast tea (got one from breakfast not long ago) to wash them down.
I am not sure if the absence of Chef Adriano Cattaneo had anything to do with it but it was overall a disappointing experience that one would never expect from a Robuchon establishment. Service was again very attentive (except the one on the ginger sorbet) but all three dishes were at least a few notches below their usually high standard. I can't say I wasn't disappointed walking out that door.
Price: $$$$
Address: Shop 315 & 401, The Landmark, Central, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: Central
Tel: +852 2166-9000
Website: www.robuchon.hk
Opening Hours: 12:00pm - 2:00pm, 6:30pm - 10:30pm daily
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